ProPaintball insiders indicate that the big paintball manufactures (the guys making the paint) are suggesting that the major paintball leagues merge. According to a rumor floating around, the paintball companies want the National Professional Paintball League to merge with Paintball Sports Promotions in 2012 to reduce the amount of times they need to roll out the heavy duty/expensive event trucks. The rumor goes as far as to suggest the paintball manufactures are considering pulling their sponsorship of the leagues if a merger is not completed.

The concept of a major league merger is not a new one. In fact, the “merger” rumor has shown its face for as long as many of us can remember. The issues preventing the leagues from merging boil down to a few key points; who and how much ownership everyone would hold in combined league, which format would survive, and, most of all, personal ego.

For those of you unfamiliar, the NPPL is compromised of a group of pro teams who own various percentage interests in the league. The PSP is backed by Dave Dehaan, the owner of DYE Precision. Each league has its established customer base and feels that its format and operation is superior to that of the competition.

Further, the NPPL owners want a seat at the decision making table (a position a core group of NPPL owners have held since 2007) in order to influence the course and direction of the league. The PSP is under the impression that they run a good show and that while a think tank might be good, there is no guarantee that those ideas will be implemented or taken into consideration.

What people fail to realize is that both leagues are owned, in part, by "major" mfr's.

Why on earth would a paint mfr (who is part owner of 1 league), want to merge with another league and compete against their rival company for paint sales or put the other owners at risk of diluting their customer (team) base?

NPPL ball=Slower, methodical play, at least in my experience. Xball style points would take forever.
No coaching=Not good. I like the interaction on the snake side.
Straight semi?=Too hard to regulate. 12.5 ramp is superior in terms of control and "leveling" the playing field a bit.

I'm highly geared toward Xball style play as opposed to NPPL style ball, but everyone is going to have their own opinions. Keep the two leagues separate.

NPPL ball=Slower, methodical play, at least in my experience. Xball style points would take forever.
No coaching=Not good. I like the interaction on the snake side.
Straight semi?=Too hard to regulate. 12.5 ramp is superior in terms of control and "leveling" the playing field a bit.

I'm highly geared toward Xball style play as opposed to NPPL style ball, but everyone is going to have their own opinions. Keep the two leagues separate.

So what your saying is that you cant shoot off'ed handed and you need your coach to tell you what to do on the field.

Put the game back into the true players hands. Players that can do all the right things, the players that have amazing field awareness and are ninjas.

So what your saying is that you cant shoot off'ed handed and you need your coach to tell you what to do on the field.

Put the game back into the true players hands. Players that can do all the right things, the players that have amazing field awareness and are ninjas.

Coaching is fun and interactive but takes away from the game imo.

I can shoot off-handed very well. What I am noting is that uncapped semi is too difficult to regulate for the officiating staff, and can be somewhat dangerous with regard to overshooting and such. Then again, overshooting can be done with 12.5 ramp too. One must be realistic and realize that overshooting is always going to be a mild problem in tournament paintball regardless of firing mode.

Coaching brings an element into the game that the NPPL just cannot/will not ever offer. It speeds up the game, is more interactive just like you said, and makes it much more exciting IMO. (Mind you this is my opinion and your opinion may not be in accordance with mine)

Ultimately, if you like the rules that the NPPL offers, go play NPPL. Don't try and change the league for the more Xball oriented players. Our league has went through enough change up to this point, why can't we just keep it the same for a while?

Edit.
To Minions: I guess I should have noted that the length of a point is highly dependent on the field layout. If a field is conducive to movement then points will go quicker, and vice versa. If you just cannot make the bump to your next bunker, you sit and camp. Time is the only thing that can change this. The Xball format is just fine how it is right now, and I'm tired of all the change, but what if we were to put a time limit on each point in an Xball match (say 3-4 minutes for example) and one had to hang the flag before that time expired? It seems like the only thing to encourage movement on a field which wouldn't necessarily be a high movement field.

Edit.
To Minions: I guess I should have noted that the length of a point is highly dependent on the field layout. If a field is conducive to movement then points will go quicker, and vice versa. If you just cannot make the bump to your next bunker, you sit and camp. Time is the only thing that can change this. The Xball format is just fine how it is right now, and I'm tired of all the change, but what if we were to put a time limit on each point in an Xball match (say 3-4 minutes for example) and one had to hang the flag before that time expired? It seems like the only thing to encourage movement on a field which wouldn't necessarily be a high movement field.

yeah i hear ya. ive been playing paintball for a while and the only input i can give on how slow a game is is this; you can change field size, speed of guns, amount of players and even the time of a game, but the fact of the matter is a layout is the main thing that makes a game go fast. there have been 7 man events where games would go 3 mins long and there have been x ball events where games go 15 mins. the layout is the only thing that changes the game speed detrimentally.

So your saying that a marker that keeps shooting after u stop pulling the trigger is more safe then a marker that you the players controls completely? I understand your over shooting point but that all comes down to a player being willing and wanting to do that. With ramping a player might want/need to stop shooting right away and the marker keeps on shooting.

So your saying that a marker that keeps shooting after u stop pulling the trigger is more safe then a marker that you the players controls completely? I understand your over shooting point but that all comes down to a player being willing and wanting to do that. With ramping a player might want/need to stop shooting right away and the marker keeps on shooting.

It is a trade off with semi and ramping really. But here is a question for you: Would you rather be overshot by a gun in uncapped semi or a gun in 12.5 capped ramp?

How fast can any paintball player really shoot in uncapped semi anyway? I mean, I'm a pretty good shooter, but with running around and snapping and all, I'd probably only be able to get up to 15-17bps.

Honestly, I play paintball so I don't care if I get overshot a little. It happens.

How fast can any paintball player really shoot in uncapped semi anyway? I mean, I'm a pretty good shooter, but with running around and snapping and all, I'd probably only be able to get up to 15-17bps.

Honestly, I play paintball so I don't care if I get overshot a little. It happens.

i can shoot 20-21 with my right hand (main hand) consistently, and 12-16 left handed fairly consistently. Uncapped semi would favor the back players who can shoot faster, but i don't think it'd change the game too much. Although i think we're starting to get to the point, especially with newer players, where ramping is all they know, and with current boards, you can get to ramp speeds with one finger, so for those players to play uncapped semi i think they'd have a bit of a disadvantage